Buying, Renting, and Selling Timeshares

Anyone have experience with Castle Law Group, PC out of Tennessee

Apr 19, 2017

Have you worked with Diamond to resell your points back? Or do you know someone that has and was this transaction recently? We are trying to sell ours, and we just want the fees for the sale nothing more. No takers yet! And if we can sell them back to them, for that same deal that would be great. Not sure if that is possible. So if you can provide me with more details and who was contacted so that we can start down that path. Thanks for any details you can provide.


Deborah C.
Apr 20, 2017

deborahc429 wrote:
Have you worked with Diamond to resell your points back? Or do you know someone that has and was this transaction recently? We are trying to sell ours, and we just want the fees for the sale nothing more. No takers yet! And if we can sell them back to them, for that same deal that would be great. Not sure if that is possible. So if you can provide me with more details and who was contacted so that we can start down that path. Thanks for any details you can provide.

DRI will take back Diamond ownerships if you pay DRI a flat $250 fee. Contact DRI directly for procedural details. You are not likely to be able to sell Diamond points at ANY price in the resale market and DRI is certainly not going to BUY them back from you, so paying a one time fee of $250 to DRI to get "out" would provide an effective and prompt "exit", with minimal effort and without involving (or paying) any useless third party thieves who offer empty promises to do what you can easily do for yourself --- and for a lot less money.

Unfortunately, options to so easily "deed back" timeshare ownerships are still the exception rather than the rule in the industry and will not involve receiving monetary compensation. With Wyndham's "Ovation" program, there is no cost to "return" the product (once / if first approved in advance by Wyndham). In the case of DRI (and with those relatively few independent resorts which may accept "deedbacks"), you will actually have to PAY the company / HOA anywhere from a few hundred dollars to 1-3 years' worth of maintenance fees in order to have the "deedback" accepted --- and informed, overt "acceptance" of ANY "deedback" by the recipient is ALWAYS a basic, fundamental legal requirement.


KC

Last edited by ken1193 on Apr 21, 2017 04:22 AM

Apr 20, 2017

Is your timeshare paid off?

Last I heard Diamond was supposedly doing a deedback for a $250 fee if your timeshare is paid off. Have you asked Diamond?

deborahc429 wrote:
Have you worked with Diamond to resell your points back? Or do you know someone that has and was this transaction recently? We are trying to sell ours, and we just want the fees for the sale nothing more. No takers yet! And if we can sell them back to them, for that same deal that would be great. Not sure if that is possible. So if you can provide me with more details and who was contacted so that we can start down that path. Thanks for any details you can provide.


Laura B.
May 04, 2017

Castle is negotiating with the developer of our timeshare and is resolving the deedback of our timeshare. Judson Phillips is courteous and helpful in dealing with us.


Ronald S.

Last edited by ronalds413 on May 05, 2017 08:57 AM

May 04, 2017

Did they resolve your situation? Did they get you out of your timeshare?


Valarie H.
May 04, 2017

valarieh16 wrote:
Did they resolve your situation? Did they get you out of your timeshare?

In my own years of timeshare experience, I have NEVER ONCE heard or read of even a single credible report of success with "Castle Law Group". That includes among 80,000 participants in Timeshare User Group (TUG). You can choose to "believe' and "hope" (and of course, pay money upfront). That choice (and that upfront payment) is certainly your decision to make, but I personally regard it as just voluntarily throwing money away. Unfortunately, once you send money to outfits like this there is virtually no chance that you will ever see any of that money again, or any actual results for having chosen to pay it.


KC

Last edited by ken1193 on May 05, 2017 01:31 PM

May 05, 2017

Thank you. I'm in the process of drafting a letter to them to get a refund of my retainer fees.


Valarie H.
May 05, 2017

Send it receipt return so you have proof that they received it. If they refuse to pick it up or fail to respond then file complaints with the Attorney General and the Bar Association .Good luck but all these scammers want is your upfront money .


Don P.
May 24, 2017

I also contacted Castle Law Group. They tried to make me think that my life would come to an end if I didn't pay them 3000 to get out of my timeshare. I felt like they were worst than the Timeshare presentation. I declined to use them. I then penned a letter to the owner of the timeshare and stated my case. I did not accuse them of fraud, because I was not frauded; but I explained to them what my situation was and told them the truth. They released me from my timeshare for free and released the debt that I still owed.


Salonge C.
May 24, 2017

salongec wrote:
I then penned a letter to the owner of the timeshare and stated my case. I did not accuse them of fraud, because I was not frauded; but I explained to them what my situation was and told them the truth. They released me from my timeshare for free and released the debt that I still owed.

While some timeshare entities will accept "deedbacks" on ownerships that are fully paid off and current on maintenance fees, it is rare (virtually unheard of, actually) for a timeshare entity to "forgive" loan debt. More often than not, the timeshare doesn't hold the note on the purchase loan anyhow, so the associated loan debt is therefore not theirs to "forgive".

Are you referring only to unpaid maintenance fees or to actual unpaid loan debt in your above assertion involving a (unidentified, unspecified) resort???


KC

Last edited by ken1193 on Jun 05, 2017 03:16 PM

May 24, 2017

I have been advising people for years to be their own advocate and stop falling for these attorney scams . You don't need an attorney to speak for you . I got rid of two timeshares in 2011 by contacting the home resorts and negotiating my own exits . I only had to pay a minimal fees to file the paperwork and it only took a few weeks to process the deeds. I have copies of all the recorded deeds and haven't had to pay a penny in maintenance fees since 2011 .

Thanks for posting your results for others to hear that they can do this on their own .


Don P.
Jun 03, 2017

Ken 1193 Our Diamond Advocacy group, which consists of volunteers, has assisted members who have had several loans forgiven when obvious deceit, concealment, violation of trust or bait and switch as defined by the FBI as white collar crime Financial Institution fraud. The company does not admit wrongdoing offering it "as a courtesy".

Diamond is not a company I would have chosen to willingly do business with, but to their credit they have agreed to loan cancellations if they had financed the loan or Barclay via the Mastercard. It takes some help from regulatory authorities but that is what they are there for. Due to non-disclosure agreements, terms are not discussed but Nancy Callahan had her story published before signing the agreement. I'm told I can only say positive outcome which is how we reported Nancy's outcome. http://insidetimeshare.com/another-nightmare-timeshare-street/


Irene P.
Jun 07, 2017

They took my parents money and it has been almost 2 years and all they get every time they call someone is "we are working on it" They are nothing but rip off artist! The paperwork they gave my parents said they would take care of the timeshare in 6 months no longer then a year. As I said it has been almost 2 years now. I am going to do research on getting a class action law suite started.


Deborah H.
Jun 07, 2017

deborahh392 wrote:
I am going to do research on getting a class action law suit started.

You are of course free to research and / or initiate any course of action that you choose, but I respectfully submit that a "class action lawsuit" involves a whole lot more time, effort, expense and procedure than you likely realize or can even imagine. For starters, how would you ever manage to contact and / or assemble enough unhappy "donors" to Castle to actually constitute a "class"? Next, how / where would you propose to find an attorney or law firm willing to take on your particular cause and represent your (small) "class"? Those are very real issues; a class action lawsuit is easily talked about, but NOT easily initiated.

You might have better success (with considerably less time and expense) filing formal complaints directly with the Attorney General in Tennessee. If you search through this thread, you will actually find ALL of the precise contact information necessary to proceed with doing so ---address, phone number, online complaint form, etc. Additionally, you will incur absolutely no cost in pursuing that particular route. What have you got to lose except a small investment of your time? It's entirely your choice and your decision to make.

In any event, good luck. ANY effort that helps keep people from being taken advantage of and / or helps keep their pockets from being picked is a worthwhile effort in my book.


KC

Last edited by ken1193 on Jun 08, 2017 07:22 AM

Jun 08, 2017

Report them to the Attorney General in the state where their business is located and the state you live in. Also file a complaint with the bar association in the state where they practice. If there is a " real " attorney that owns or is connected with the so called " law group " then they can take action against them. It's all free for you and you can get the same results a lot faster .


Don P.
Jun 08, 2017

I refinanced my timeshare last year. Worst mistake of my life after buying the durn timeshare cause now everyone says they can't help me to try and get rid of the darn thing. I bought my Westgate timeshare in 2011 and I really wish I had just left there without buying. I don't know how to use it and my grandkins don't have the time to help me try and use RCI.


PaulaF P.

Last edited by paulafp on Jun 08, 2017 09:49 PM

Jun 09, 2017

You can refinance timeshares? I didn't know that was even possible. What company did you use? It wasn't Castle Law Group, was it?


PoodleLuver
Jun 09, 2017

No it was thru Lightstream. They did lowered my interest rate but now that I'm tryin to get rid of it every place tells me they can't help me at all. If your wanting to keep your timeshare maybe its a good idea but i dont know.


PaulaF P.
Jun 09, 2017

paulafp wrote:
No it was thru Lightstream. They did lowered my interest rate but now that I'm tryin to get rid of it every place tells me they can't help me at all. If your wanting to keep your timeshare maybe its a good idea but i dont know.

The reason why no place can help you get rid of it is because, as you have clearly pointed out, you still owe a mortgage on it. No one is going to want to take on a timeshare with a mortgage still owing. Your best bet is to try to pay off Lightstream ASAP and then somehow give your unit away. While you are paying of LS, make sure you also keep up with the maintenance fees because you won't be able to give your unit away with fees still owing either.

While you still own it, try to make use of it somehow. Just be careful about many of these so-called rescue or relief firms that claim they can "cancel" your timeshare and mortgage. They will charge you a large, upfront fee and may or may not do what you paid them to do.


Lance C.
Jun 09, 2017

paulafp wrote:
They did lowered my interest rate but now that I'm tryin to get rid of it every place tells me they can't help me at all. If your wanting to keep your timeshare maybe its a good idea but i dont know.

There really isn't anything you can do to part with a timeshare on which there is still an outstanding loan balance, regardless of loan interest rate. There is simply NO ONE who can "help" you while a unpaid loan obligation still remains firmly attached to the timeshare.

You indicated previously that this is a Westgate timeshare. Unfortunately, even if it was paid off in full right now, you would have great difficulty even giving it away for free, since Westgate reservation policies greatly devalue all resale-acquired Westgate timeshares. Their properties are certainly nice enough --- but the company and its' practices and policies are absolutely the pits and they deliberately render all Westgate resales nearly worthless.

I'm not advising you to do this, but you always have the option to cut your losses by simply NOT paying another nickel, defaulting on the loan and enduring the inevitable credit report "hit" for 5-7 years. It just seems like a waste to keep paying off a loan for something which is essentially worthless in the resale market anyhow and, even if fully paid off, you would have great difficulty even giving away FOR FREE. Just offering food for thought, not making a recommendation. I am sorry for your plight; you are certainly in a very tough spot.


KC

Last edited by ken1193 on Jun 13, 2017 07:01 AM


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